Lionel Messi
Lionel Messiצילום: רויטרס

Paris St. Germain is getting a boost in its new erc20 cryptocoin PSG, after soccer legend Lionel Messi signed a contract with the team. The 34-year old left Barcelona to play with Qatari-owned PSG for 2-years plus an optional third year. The news comes as more sport teams adopt fan tokens to give supporters a greater sense of belonging to their favorite teams.

When the news broke that 6 time Ballon d’Or and Champions League veteran Lionel Messi would sign with the Paris-based club, fans went wild. The total amount of the contract was not disclosed, but PSG says it’s ‘significant’. The soccer star’s welcome package is estimated to include between 25 to 30 million euros, as well as a fair share of fan tokens ($PSG).

The price of the tokens surged after news of the possible deal became public, climbing over 130% in five days. Previously, the tokens had fallen ten percent to approximately $40, but are currently valued at $60 according to CoinMarketCap.

The Fan Token Crypto Craze

The man behind the sport tokens, Alexandre Dreyfus, says that this is only the beginning of crypto-based fan monetization. His company Socios.com advertises itself as a one-of-a-kind mobile app for sports fans. The platform lets users interact with and participate in small-scale decisions related to their team.

“I believe this could be the start of a new trend as fan tokens and Socios.com play an increasingly prominent role across sport at the very highest level,” he said.

For example, members might vote to change the team’s logo or share their opinion on uniform colors. The tokens do not have any effect on how the team is actually organized or how it performs during games. Notably, the coins are not collectible or limited-edition merchandise and are essentially non-fungible. The tokens help solve the problem of scarcity in sport paraphernalia which is limited such as tickets and signed pictures of Lionel Messi.

Giving Fans the Right to Vote

The tokens function the same as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which can be traded on centralized or decentralized exchanges. However, this also means that the coins are subject to volatile market conditions which can increase or decrease the coin’s value abruptly. Because of this, several organizations have warned against fans using tokens as currencies.

The right to vote and feel a part of the team is valuable to fans who want more than a tattoo of their favorite team crest. These tokens, such as $PSG, are called ‘digital assets’ according to the company, and are originally meant for entertainment purposes. However, both fans and investors rushed to invest in the tokens in the hopes that Lionel Messi could provide a greater return on their purchase.

Alexandre Drefyus founded Socios in 2018 to allow major sport clubs the creation of virtual fan tokens that essentially monetize their fanbase. The clubs can also make their coins tradeable on crypto exchanges, which opens up the opportunity to cash in. Dreyfus previously managed on-line casinos such as Winamax and Chillipoker which focused on poker. He saw an opportunity to give fans a better way to engage with their teams, as well as a new revenue stream for sport clubs.

Toto Provides Safety for the Internet Gambling Industry

The gambling space is also moving towards cryptos and digital gameplay. After the restrictions due to the pandemic left many afraid or unable to enter physical casinos, gamblers are staking at all online. Perhaps the most popular example of this is Toto, an Asia-based gaming website that hosts the biggest on-line casinos. The all-in-one gaming site offers an experience similar to sitting in a high quality casino, but in the comfort of your own home.

Toto offers everything typically found in a casino, such as blackjack, poker, as well as sports betting. The service also hosts high-stakes games they call ‘Big Bang Betting’ which lets the user make a single high ball wager. Toto also analyzes all the casinos it hosts to make sure that everything is safe and transparent. Users are also vetted against their gaming history on other platforms, which is viewable to the public. One easy way to find reputable Toto sites is to eat away through the details on Mukcheck.com, and learn from it’s database of both fraudulent and safe sites for users.

Ethereum’s ERC20 vs Binance’s BEP20

The PSG cryptocurrency is an ERC20 token, based on the Ethereum Blockchain. Many believed Ethereum crypto-culture would take over the digital currency world, until recently. It’s still a staple but as the United States and other English speaking countries have been slower to adapt to Crypto coins in comparison to African and Asias countries, another has risen.

Binance smart-chain recently began out-performing daily transaction totals of the EThereum blockchain by massive amounts. Whereas the EBC was doing under 1.5-million transactions daily, BEP20 was doing nearly 10 million. Not only this but Binance CEO “CZ” tweeted they are planning to reach transaction totals of 20-million daily.

The huge boost to BNB came from the crypto-gaming industry. The game “Cryptoblade” has become a huge hit, with over 600,000 young users who are being introduced to BEP20 tokens paired to the BNB coin, through gaming.

Getting to 20-million daily transactions will take an even larger audience however. Another BNB spike is expected once DeFi tokens like SafeTitan ($STTN) are ready for use. The China token that has it’s ICO launch on October 14th, will eventually allow users to loan their cryptocoins to borrowers via secured smart contracts. The peer 2 peer loaning method is a budding industry where individuals HODLing tokens can earn profits from various term length loans, like banks of today.

Either way for now, if more superstars like Lionel Messi get involved with coins on the Ethereum blockchain network, one thing's for sure. ETH and ERC20 tokens’ transactional count will skyrocket.